It made sense. Terrifying, reality-breaking sense. In Pokemon games, you can't actually die. The worst that happens is you lose the battle and some money. Your Pokemon faint, but they're always fine after a quick trip to the Pokemon Center. Doesn't matter if the god himself dropped an meteor on him, just an trip to pokemon center, and its perfectly back.
But this wasn't a game world, was it? I did see Ash earlier, ignoring the fact that he died right after, he did exist. And I think the whole dialga vs palkia battle was also anime exclusive as you could encounter only one of them in the game, depending on which version you brought. Through I didn't see the Darkai from movies, wonder if he ran away seeing the third creation god appear.
Unless...
"What if this system is like some kind of gamer body thing?" I mused, my excitement growing. "But adapted for the Pokemon world? Like, instead of taking no visible injuries till my health reach zero, I'm immune to death because I'm following Pokemon game rules?"
The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. The blue screens, the status effects, the move learning notifications, even the ridiculous battle log that treated everything like a game encounter—it was all pointing to the same conclusion.
"I'm basically running Pokemon game engine in an anime world."
That would explain how I survived getting atom-bombed by two legendaries. In the games, the absolute worst that can happen to you is fainting. Doesn't matter if you get hit by a Hyper Beam or accidentally step on a Legendary's tail—you just lose HP until you hit zero, then you're "fainted" until someone heals you.
"But that's... that's completely broken!" I realized, my form quivering with excitement. "If I can't actually die, just faint, and if fainted Pokemon can't take damage..."
The battle logs had shown it clear as day.
It was the most beautifully broken mechanic I'd ever seen. Like finding an invincibility glitch in real life.
But then the next part of the log sobered me up real quick:
[ALERT! Catastrophic Anomaly Detected!]
[Legendary Pokémon [Palkia] and [Dialga] are initiating Forbidden Protocol: [Reality Override - Full Timeline Reboot].]
[WARNING! Timeline rebooting!]
"Those dumbasses can just... reboot the whole damn timeline?! Like it's some glitchy Windows 98?!"
Holy shit, just what had I beefed with? More importantly, not only had they actually gone through with nuking the entire timeline, but somehow I'd survived the process. Though looking around at this unfamiliar forest, I had to wonder...
"Am I in the past? The future? Did they just Control+Alt+Delete the entire universe and forget to put me back in the right folder?"
A mental note seared itself into my consciousness: AVOID SPACE AND TIME GODS AT ALL COSTS. THEY HAVE ADMIN PRIVILEGES.
"Next time they see me, I'm getting yeeted straight to the Stone Age. Hell, for all I know, I might already be there."
But that terrifying thought was momentarily shoved aside by something even more pressing.
The sheer, unbridled potential of my newfound immortality was starting to sink in.
"Wait..." I said slowly, my voice filled with dawning realization. "If I can't take damage while fainted... and apparently I can survive timeline reboots... does that mean..."
A slow, wicked grin spread across my face-area.
"I'm basically unkillable?"
The forest around me seemed to grow quieter, as if the universe itself was bracing for the sheer audacity of my next thought.
"Ohhhh, this is gonna be fun."
I could already see it—me, a pink, amorphous god, shrugging off Hyper Beams like raindrops, tanking Legendary attacks with a smug "That all you got?", while the world trembled at my indestructible might.
"Step one: Get swole. Step two: Wreck shit. Step three: Profit."
But first, I needed to recover.
I glanced back at my status screen.
[HP: 1/48] [Natural Regeneration Rate: 0.000069 HP/hour]
...
The number stared back at me like a cosmic middle finger.
"Oh. Right."
At this rate, it would take me literally months to get back to full health naturally. And that was assuming nothing else tried to step on me in the meantime.
"Okay, new plan," I muttered, my brief power fantasy deflating like a punctured balloon. "Step one: Find a Pokemon Center. Step two: Figure out how to not be broke as shit. Step three: Try not to get accidentally murdered by a Caterpie while I'm still running on one HP."
The forest rustled around me, and I could swear I heard the distant sound of something large moving through the underbrush.
"This is fine," I lied to myself. "Everything is perfectly fine."
A Spearow cried out somewhere above me, and I reflexively tried to sink deeper into the dirt.
"I'm totally not about to get owned by a bird that's probably weaker than a soggy napkin."
Yeah. This was going to be a long day.
__
Throw in the powerstone guys, this growing sapling needs it for exposure. Every single one counts.
And if you wondering how is this guy speaking while in ditto form, thats just because you are kind of hearing it after translation. In reality, there is this ditto just muttering didididi to himself while half buried in the middle of a forest.